Day 90 - Sandfire to Port Hedland

300km along the Great Northern Highway from Sandfire had us in Port Hedland by lunchtime.  The road was excellent.  Same sort of country as yesterday and there were even more wildflowers - wattles.  We saw rivers not 50km from Port Hedland, the first ones we have seen since leaving Broome.  Rivers included the Pardoo, Degrey and Strelly and the Degrey was the best by far.  We chose not to take the anchor in to 80 Mile Beach as the road was sandy, dusty and pretty badly corrugated.  

As we neared Port Hedland and after we passed the sign to Poondarno Mine (Atlas Iron), the traffic intensity picked up.  The customary caravans were interspersed with red coloured road trains and 4WD company vehicles scooting from mine to town and back.  Little red hillocks appeared on the scene.  We had arrived in the Pilbara, iron ore country.

After lunch we did some sightseeing around Port Hedland.  It is the exporting port for BHP Billiton's iron ore operations.  They have a huge crushing facility here and there are stockpiles of ore awaiting loading on to bulk ore carriers.  There were at least four ships that we could see in port and there were 23 riding at anchor out to sea.  We saw the various beaches around Port Hedland but there was nothing outstanding.  

One of the adverse consequences of living in Port Hedland is the red dust.  All the house roofs are red and don't stand still for any prolonged period or you too will go red. Another one is the existence of long ore trains coming in from the mines.  The traffic holdups were so bad that they are now building huge road crossovers and clover leafs to overcome the problems.  We crossed over one on the way in and it would do even Americans proud, so big was it.

Weather was perfect.

050714 More wildflowers - wattles as far as the eye can see

050714 Typical countryside traversed today

050714 The Degrey River looking upstream

050714 The Degrey River looking downstream

050714 Little red hillocks started to appear

050714 Traffic increased as we approached Port Hedland

050714 Road train numbers increased as we approached Port Hedland

050714 One of the new crossovers to avoid the ore trains

050714 Dampier Salt recovered from salt pans near Port Hedland (Rio Tinto Salt)

050714 Bulk ore carriers at sea awaiting loading, three of twenty three

050714 Cooke Point not far from our Caravan Park

050714 Ships being loaded. Ore destined for China and Japan

050714 Crushed ore stockpiles for export from Port Hedland

050714 Salt, Port Hedland's other major export, at the port